The Elevator: Friday Freestyle

Written from a prompt for Kate Valentine’s Unleashed Friday Freestyle: The Elevator

That’s the thing about getting older: the drunker the people around you get, the more invisible you become.

The up-arrow button is lit, but the elevator doesn’t seem to be moving between floors. Doesn’t bother me none. I’m in no hurry.

My cloudy blue eyes scan the group of people less than half my age: bridesmaids, groomsmen, friends of the bride and groom, all in various stages of dressing down, and I smile.

Frank, my late husband, and I had our wedding at the VFW hall, and sixty years later, here was my granddaughter taking over an entire floor of the Palmer Hotel in downtown Chicago.

Oh, how times have changed.

And speaking of times changing, there wasn’t a member of this group under thirty. Can you imagine that? A bunch of beautiful thirty- and forty-year-olds, most of them still single, drinking fine champagne and living like movie stars.

I was already fifty by the time I had turned thirty.

My new grandson-in-law whispers quietly to Sophia, my granddaughter, the bride.

“Erica and Tina are looking for a place to fuck. I had to almost forcibly kick them out of our room…”

Sophia responds.

“They are a MESS! Erica is so drunk. If the photos turn out terrible, I’m gonna be pissed.”

Matthew pushes the elevator button again, growing impatient.

“I don’t know why they don’t just get a room.”

That’s no fun, I think to myself.

Matthew looks at his watch. He’s had enough.

“Ten fucking minutes. I’m going to the front desk.”

And off he goes.

Angela, my daughter’s maid of honor, turns to me.

“Are you doing okay, Nana? Do you need me to find you a chair?”

I look around, holding my purse in front of me, almost surprised to be seen.

She’s a good kid.

“No, sweetheart. If I go sit down, I might not be able to get back up.”

She nods.

I notice the married couple smirking as they both look at their phones. They’re married to other people, by the way. But I’ve been watching them all night, and they are certainly a couple.

I’ve been watching everyone all night.

Including Erica and Tina.

I imagine what it would have been like to kiss another woman. To finger her in the elevator.

Warmth rushes into my face and other places.

“Grandma, are you feeling okay? Your face is really red.”

Oh, darling, if you only knew.

Just then, the light for the floors starts moving.

“Thank God,” someone lets out.

The married couple raise their eyebrows at one another.

The elevator arrives, the doors open, and Erica and Tina exit giggling.

The herd pushes me into the elevator.

Tina licks a bit of glaze off her finger.

I stand there staring at the closed door, pleased with where the world has headed.

“Do you want to come to our room for a bit, Nana?”

“No, my dear. It’s about my bedtime.”

Nana had some work to do.

(The End)

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